[nWoD] Power Limitation

[Drakevarg]

I am not a big fan of power fantasies. To me, power is only useful insofar as it allows you to overcome challenges. That's a big part of why I switched to WoD in the first place. DnD is about indulging in power, getting bigger sticks and bigger special effects budgets with which to defeat bigger monsters with bigger teeth. My campaigns tend to be less about monster-slaying and loot-gathering and more about the fact that every dark corner of the universe is trying to kill you. Being vulnerable, but just powerful enough to survive is my target.

With that in mind, I recently have been mulling over the idea of limiting supernatural abilities to 3 dots without some sort of in-story means of breaking the power limiter. The player I've been discussing this with is... less than enthusiastic about this idea, but frankly if he wants to feel powerful he shouldn't be playing in my campaigns. I feel less than sympathetic when someone complains that they can "only" punch ghosts and raise the dead and that it's not worth the effort.

I simply don't feel that a dark, oppressive world of forgotten scars where cunning and understanding are key to survival should be big on the special effects. 3 Dots, I figure, is enough to give a taste of power without going overboard. I just thought I'd get the Playground's opinion on the matter.

[JMobius]

Well, its a style. As long as you're not going on about how its objectively superior or anything, it could be interesting.


The player I've been discussing this with is... less than enthusiastic about this idea, but frankly if he wants to feel powerful he shouldn't be playing in my campaigns.

Probably! If this isn't going to over with your group as a whole very well, you might consider letting someone else take the GM spot.

[Drakevarg]

Probably! If this isn't going to over with your group as a whole very well, you might consider letting someone else take the GM spot.

Half of them already run their own games, anyway. Him included. There's no "spot" to take.

[Elricaltovilla]

I'm of the opinion that as long as you're open and upfront about what you're doing and why you're doing it, then you're not doing anything wrong or bad. If the other person has a problem with it, that's their problem and they don't have to play. Again, this is entirely dependent on you being open and upfront about the changes you're making.

On the other hand, its pretty easy to build a character with limited supernatural power that can still get on crazy power trips. Pretty much any Merit raised to 5 dots is going to be borderline supernatural in effectiveness.

I've got a character in a "changeling" game who rolls 25 dice on a brawl attack, with 8 agains (and sometimes 9 agains) with only Wyrd 1, because that's all he needs.

[fireinthedust]

My experience with WoD was that how a group uses the book can be very different than how the book is intended to be used.


The one time I tried oWoD, I'm at this store. Big burly guy is running the game, and at the table is this classic stereotype, weasily, nerdy, mean, sweaty, rules-lawyering power gaming grognard... but not the fun kind. They pull me in with a promise of oWoD fun (back then it was just WoD, we hadn't reached '98 yet). I'd had months with a friend's literal piles of books of WoD, every supplement, and I was totally pulled into the canon setting(s).

Now, the game was Werewolf, but they said I could make up a were-cat. I do it, make a reasonable normal guy who happens to be able to turn into a mountain lion. The character is so new, the sheet is still hot fromt eh photocopier, basically. he's reasonable, a normal guy in a weird situation.

Grognard? He brings out this ages-old character incorporating rules material from a dozen books I'd never heard of, books on combat in WoD, who has ten times my point total, walks around the streets of the city with a giant flaming kitana, and makes people explode by looking at them.


Long story short, it doesn't matter how many dice you roll. Playstyle, not stats, has a powerful effect on how the game is run. If you allow someone to walk around the setting like a D&D character, they'll do that. If you make them earn every point, or challenge them with things they need every point to succeed on, AND you call them when they step out of genre? That's what I think you should worry about.

Dice are about success, fiction is about making them believe it. You don't want to take the success sensation away, the players will subconsciously avoid your game if you do. Give them victories, run your game normally, just ask them, expect them, to keep it "real".

And say no to d-bag characters.